Room Key: Royal Plantation Ocho Rios, Jamaica
Address: Main Street, Box 2, Ocho Rios, Jamaica
Phone: (876) 974-5601
Reservations: (888) 487-6925
Web: www.royalplantation.com
General Manager: Peter A. Fraser
Rooms: 74 suites and the three-bedroom Villa Lantana
Rates: Seven categories of rooms, including six honeymoon grand verandas. Rates include a European Plan (no meals) and the Royal Plan (all-inclusive). E.P. rates though Dec. 19 start at $900 per room, per night, single or double; from $1,276 from Jan. 4 to April 7. Royal Plan is an additional cost of $215 per person, per night and covers all meals, beverages, bar, transfers and greens fees at Upton Golf Course.
Facilities: Five dining options, including 24-hour in-room service and Royal Beach Butler Service; C Bar for champagne and caviar; gym and fitness center; Red Lane Spa; two lighted tennis courts; all water sports; in-room Internet (for a daily charge); pool; two beaches and 30 or so peacocks strutting around the property.
Review: If it's water aerobics and nightlife you're looking for, go elsewhere. Royal Plantation is a haven of intimacy, serenity and service for guests who run the gamut from honeymooners to retirees. Resort encourages and can arrange off-site excursions and customized tours. Guests who arrive solo can have a staff member accompany them at meals and on shopping trips, part of the resort's Tender Loving Care program. Try an ice-cold mangosa (mango puree and champagne), the resort's specialty drink.
Executive Chef Christian Ghisays deftly filleted an enormous grouper, which had been marinating in fresh lime juice since being hooked that morning several miles off Jamaica's north coast.
He stuffed the fish with garlic, onions, scallions and thyme, liberally sprinkled it with white wine, wrapped it in aluminum foil and set it on the charcoal grill, alongside fresh vegetables that were turning crispy on the edges from the heat.
Assistant chefs ladled fish broth into handmade pottery bowls, scooped beans and rice onto plates and set platters of curried chicken onto picnic tables under a protective sun canopy on the beach.
Billed as the Jamaican Fish Lunch, this weekly event is just one of many culinary options at Royal Plantation Ocho Rios, Jamaica, a resort that has evolved since its opening in 2001, following an initial $10 million transformation of a legendary property.
It began in January 1999 when Butch Stewart, chairman of Sandals and Beaches Resorts, purchased the aging Plantation Inn in Ocho Rios. Built in 1957, the Plantation Inn attracted the celebrity A-list of its time, including the British royal family, Winston Churchill, Eartha Kitt, Princess Grace of Monaco and author Ian Fleming of James Bond fame.
Restoring the property to its former plantation-style elegance, coupled with modern luxuries and amenities, has been the driving force behind the project ever since, beginning with a refit in 2000.
The original guestrooms were gutted and enlarged to 80 suites (now 74), each with a balcony and water view. The resort had more marble than an Italian quarry plus Mexican tiles and stonework.
The resort opened as Beaches Royal Plantation Golf Resort & Spa in February 2001, but even then there was no karaoke bar, no loudspeaker announcements at the pool and no kids.
The name was changed the following year, moving the Beaches moniker to the end of the property name to clear up confusion regarding the adults-only rule, since the two other Beaches resorts in Jamaica and Turks and Caicos welcome those under 18.
In 2003, Royal Plantation joined the Sandals family of resorts, becoming Royal Plantation Spa & Golf Resort by Sandals.
And then, on July 1, 2004, the new (and final) resort name was trumpeted: Royal Plantation Ocho Rios, marking the debut of the Royal Plantation Collection, a luxury, niche brand separate from the Sandals portfolio.
The resort is the flagship property of the boutique retreat collection, which now includes the Royal Plantation Island in Exuma, Bahamas, and Royal Plantation Private Villas in Jamaica.
Development continues on additional resort properties in Bloody Bay and Dragon Bay, Jamaica, and in Turks and Caicos.
Royal Plantation's evolution since its 2001 reopening mirrors Stewart's ability to define and refine niche markets to expand his audience of repeat guests. Behind the resort's reincarnations lie the handiwork and detail of Jaime Stewart-McConnell, brand director of the Royal Plantation Collection and daughter of the chairman.
She spearheaded the resort's upgrades while directing the property's branding and marketing throughout its evolution.
"The most passionate aspect of the restoration project for me has been the return to the genuine Jamaican service that evokes the hotel's original roots and history," Stewart-McConnell said.
That Jamaican service includes an English tea party at Bayside Terrace at 4 p.m. each day, complete with local storytellers; white-glove service in Le Papillon seafood restaurant; outdoor dining at the dinner-only Terrace; surfside grilled dinners four evenings a week at the beachside Royal Grill; and special culinary events such as the Jamaican Fish Lunch every Friday.
Jamaican hot chocolate is available at breakfast on Friday mornings from Jackie, a member of the kitchen staff, who boils locally made chocolate-paste balls in water spiced with cinnamon and coconut milk, nutmeg and vanilla and serves it in enamel cups with slices of hardo bread on the side.
"We've worked hard on perfecting the formula for maintaining the authentic character of Jamaica while still providing impeccable, personal service," Stewart-McConnell said. "Whatever our guests want, we will do. We want them to soak up Jamaican hospitality and history, not just sea and sun."
Although Royal Plantation is not an all-inclusive property (the traditional European Plan includes accommodations with continental breakfast, tennis, golf transfers, taxes and service charges), guests can opt for the inclusive Royal Plan, with accommodations, meals, a selection of house wines and greens fees.
The details tell the story of an intimate, adults-only, 74-suite resort on 17 acres that has settled well into its wrappings as a luxury, niche-market property where the music ends at 10:30 p.m., repeat guests make up the bulk of the business and agents account for 50% of all bookings, according to Peter Fraser, general manager.
He admitted that "this year has taken a lot of hard work, but we have had great support from our travel partners. We've run about 10 weddings and vow renewal ceremonies a month, had a 71% occupancy in May and 65% through mid-June and many last-minute bookings."
The newest amenity is a year-round cabana concierge service that enables guests to book four-hour packages in private seaside cabanas for breakfast, lunch, dinner and spa treatments. One of the cabanas is designated as the Sleep Cabana and enables a couple to desert their $1,000-a-night room, pay $150 extra and sleep in the curtained cabana on the beach. A private butler arrives at the curtain at 7 a.m. with breakfast.
"Bookings for the cabanas have skyrocketed, although one guest complained that the noise of the waves kept him awake all night," Fraser said.
Royal Planation's three-bedroom, 3,000-square-foot Villa Plantana, with its own pool, butler and chef, also is popular, even though the rate is $4,000 a night with a three-night minimum stay.
Royal Plantation is a member of the Leading Small Hotels of the World and Leading Spas of the World. It also is a recipient of several hospitality awards as well as being Green Globe Certified.